The goals of this interdisciplinary symposium are: 1) to understand the historic importance of food and subsistence diversity, social practice, and food sovereignty for the resilience of ecosystems and food production systems, 2) to examine the validity of traditional, local and indigenous ecological knowledge for contemporary agroecological practice, and 3) to evaluate the contribution of Japanese case studies to the current discussion of sustainable food production, circulation and consumption. Agroecology initially started during the 1980s as a discipline of natural science, specifically as the study of ecological phenomena in crop fields. Today, agroecology is defined as an interdisciplinary research field, with an emphasis on establishing both scientific and social foundations for alternative agricultural practice. In the latter context, agroecology critically examines whether conventional agricultural practice with large amounts of external inputs, including chemical fertilizer and pesticide, is sustainable in the long run. Agroecological studies in Japan have led several scholars to reevaluate the importance of traditional and local ecological knowledge (TEK and LEK) in mountainous regions of the Japanese archipelago. Scholars in Japanese studies have also emphasized the critical importance of the conservation of regional landscapes, including satoyama (human-impacted rural landscapes that have been heavily utilized for agriculture and everyday living), and traditional social practice, such as iriaiken (collective use and ownership of non-arable areas near villages), for long-term sustainability of human-environmental interaction. In this conference, scholars from North America and Japan will present contemporary and historical case studies on agroecology, TEK and regional landscapes in Japan and other parts of the Pacific region. Particular emphasis will be on the contribution of Japanese data to the current discussion of food safety, environmental conservation, and resilience of agricultural practice at the times of disasters, social catastrophes, and climate change.
Schedule
Day 1 (March 19, 5:00-7:30 PM, PST)
5:00-5:05 Opening Remarks by Dr. Toru TAMIYA, Director, JSPS San Francisco Office
5:05-5:10 Introduction by the Organizer
Session 1. Subsistence Diversity and Millet Cultivation in Japan: The Importance of Non-Rice Farming
5:10-5:30 Kazunobu IKEYA: Slash-and-burn Agriculture and Millet Cultivation in Postwar Japan
5:30:5:50 Gary CRAWFORD: An Archaeological Perspective on Sustainable Agroecology and Millet Production in Hokkaido.
5:50-6:00 Discussant | William Balée
6:00-6:10 Break
Session 2. Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Continuity in Landscape Practice
6:10-6:30 Taisaku KOMEIE: Understanding Changing Roles of Plants in Swidden Landscapes: Cultivation, Forestry, and Ecological Succession in Early Modern Japan
6:30-6:50 Junko HABU: Food Diversity and Traditional Subsistence Practice in Mountainous and Hilly Areas of Japan: Continuity and Change from the Jomon Period to the Present
6:50-7:10 Margaret Anne McKEAN: Title TBA
7:10-7:20 Discussant | Brett Walker
7:20-7:30 Q&A
Day 2: March 20, 5:00-7:30 PM, PST
Session 3: Satoyama Agroecosystems and Reviving Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Japan and Beyond
5:00-5:10 Introduction to Day 2
5:10-5:30 Kazumasa HITAKA & Osamu WATANABE: Restoring Resilient Landscapes: Understanding the Roles of Living Traditional Ecological Knowledge at the Intersection of Satoyama Landscapes, Foodscapes and Biodiversity (tentative title)
5:30-5:50 Joji MURAMOTO: Utilizing Traditional Ecological Knowledge to Tend Geophytes on the Central Coast of California (tentative title)
5:50-6:00 Discussant | Stephen Gliessman
6:00-6:10 Break
Session 4 Food and Ecoliteracy Education and Promoting Social-Justice Oriented Food Systems
6:10-6:30 Sanae SAWANOBORI: Title TBA
6:30-6:50 Keiko TANAKA: Title TBA
6:50-7:00 Discussant | Miguel Altieri
7:00-7:30 General Discussion
Speakers:
Sessions 1
Kazunobu Ikeya (National Museum of Ethnology)
Gary Crawford, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto (Paleobotany)
Discussant | Discussant: William Balée, Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University
Session 2
Taisaku Komeie (Kyoto University) (Geography)
Junko Habu, Professor, University of California, Berkeley (Archaeology)
Margaret Anne McKean, Professor emerita, Duke University (Political Science)
Discussant | Brett Walker, Professor, Department of Philosophy and History, Montana State University
Session 3
Kazumasa Hitaka (Ehime University, Agroecology)
Osamu Watanabe (Shinshu University, Ecology)
Joji Muramoto, UC Cooperative Extension Organic Production Specialist, UC Santa Cruz
Discussant | Stephen Gliessman, Professor emeritus, University of California, Santa Cruz
Session 4
Sanae Sawanobori (Keisen University)
Keiko Tanaka, Professor, University of Kentucky (Rural Sociology)
Discussant | Miguel Altieri, Professor emeritus, University of California, Berkeley
Zoom link coming soon.
Event webpage ENGLISH: https://ieas.berkeley.edu/satoyama
Event webpage JAPANESE: https://ieas.berkeley.edu/satoyamajpn